The Origin

The Myanma Timber Enterprise (MTE), originally named State Timber Extraction Organisation, was formed by the Union of Myanmar soon after the country attained independence in 1948. Before independence, from 1945 end of the Second World War – to 1948, the forests were managed and controlled by the Timber Project Board constituted by the then post war government under Timber Project Order 1945 dated 15 August. During this period, harvesting & marketing of teak were done by the Teak Consortium. However, after independence the president of the Union of Burma, under " State Timber Board, 1948" published in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests Notification No. 135, dated the 5th April 1948, constituted the State Timber Board with the order to take effect from 10th April 1948. The "State Timber Board Order, 1948" was for the purpose of managing and controlling the extraction, conversion and marketing of forest produce. It was more and act of expediency for the government to take over all the assets and liabilities of the Timber Project Board in the shortest time as possible. Under this order, the State Timber Extraction Organisation under took the duties, powers and functions of the Board till the time this order become an act of parliament. In 1950 the State Timber Board Act was promulgated and newly constituted and this newly formed Board took over the formation of the State Timber Extraction Organisation. The State Timber Board was empowered to undertake commercial explotation of teakwood starting from extraction to processing and marketing in all forms. It become a statuary board under the said act in 1952. For non-teak hardwoods, established private Myanmar Timber businessmen were granted license to extract under contract. In milling and processing of hardwoods, local sawmillers were issued permits for operating the mills on yearly basis. In 1963, hardwood marketing was brought under state control and in 1965, all private owned sawmills were nationalised. Thus the entire timber business in Myanmar, teak as well as non-teak hardwoods, become the monopoly of the State Timber Board. With the porcess of nationalisation, from 8 teak sawmills, 5 hardwoods sawmills, 3 plywood factories and a furniture factory, the magnitude of activities under the State Timber Board grew to nearly 100 factories and mills. In 1974, the State Timber Board was reorganized under the socialist economy and renamed Timber Corporation. Under this system the organization was enlarged and direct control of the functions of the four major departments viz. Extraction, Milling/ Marketing of the 14 states and divisions. Milling and Marketing of teak and export business were retained by the hardquarters in Yangon. Then in 1989, with decentralisation and the change to market oriented economy, the name of the organization was changed to Myanmar Timber Enterprise and reformed again to be compatible with the new economic policies. Union of Myanmar